Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 5, Episode 13 | Forensic Files

[Music] next on Unsolved Mysteries a newlywed with marriage problems supposedly Falls to her death
but her injuries suggests that she was beaten who was responsible for the Wickenberg Massacre was it a tribe of
Native Americans or an army deserter and his girlfriend this ordinary looking chunk
of Stone May help answer the question are there other life forms in the universe and a woman loses her memory
after surgery and then wanders away for more than three [Music] decades whether it's murder Larsen or
foul play sometimes these cases are solved thanks to you I'm Dennis finina and this is Unsolved Mysteries
[Music] Pittsburgh Pennsylvania just a few days before Christmas the broken body of Michelle
witherall lies on the ground outside her apartment building Michelle was only 24 years old
and a newlywed she and her husband Jeremy had just relocated from Denver and planned to build a new life together
and now Michelle was in critical condition with severe head injuries tell me what happened up there
I don't know what happened I mean I I Jeremy told the police that Michelle fell from their apartment balcony three
flights up he said that he was playing Solitaire in the living room when he heard a
sound he went outside looked over the railing and saw his wife's body on the ground
hello and then I ran out to the balcony I looked over and there was Michelle lying there and then I grabbed my phone
and I dialed 911 that's the whole story paramedics rushed Michelle to a nearby hospital her parents claimed that
Jeremy's mother called and told them the awful news she also had a second version of
Jeremy story she told me that there had been a terrible accident and that Michelle had been out on the
balcony at their apartment and that she'd been putting up Christmas lights and that the balcony had collapsed
causing her to [Music] fall we're looking for Michelle witheral when Michelle's family arrived at the
hospital they found Michelle in a coma hey baby the left side of her head was fractured and her jaw was broken
but Michelle's nose and teeth were unharmed despite her 30 foot fall questions were beginning to come
into our thoughts how did she get her eye busted open and her jaw broken with no damage in
between he's squeezing my hand hang in there sweetheart we really think that her squeezing ev's hand she
was telling us goodbye only two people in the world knew how Michelle had been injured and now one of
them was dead Michelle's parents claimed that a few minutes after her death Jeremy came
up with a third story about how she fell we just got home for dinner and I was playing a game of
solitire and Michelle and I we weren't even talking and then she went out to the balcony for something and when I I
looked up there she was she was hanging she was just barely hanging there I could have got
her Jeremy claims he gave just one version of what happened to Michelle that he only discovered that
she had fallen when he saw her body on the ground below but Michelle's parents still
insist they were given three different stories according to detectives the couple was
having trouble in their marriage they say Jeremy admitted arguing with Michelle that night while driving back
from a restaurant he said the argument continued at home apparently the Newly Weds had been
fighting so often that one neighbor complained repeatedly to the building manager violence is what she called it
physically throwing each other around the apartment in no uncertain terms she said someone's going to get killed out
there and she was very frightened she was scared Michelle's parents began questioning the police
investigation Michelle's family found alarming contradictions between Jeremy's account and the physical
evidence to begin with Michelle's wrists were broken but her Palms were completely
unscratched if she had fractured her risk trying to break the fall why didn't her Palms show any Cuts or scratches
from the impact act second Michelle's shoes should have been on her or nearby but one was
discovered more than 20 ft from her body and the other was never found and third Jeremy took the time to
double lock the apartment before racing to his wife's side the county Corner officially label
the cause of Michelle's death as [Music] undetermined that left three possibilities homicide accident or
suicide Michelle's parents insist it could not have been suicide the mmas also believe the
accident theory is unlikely the balcony railing was level with Michelle's chest making it impossible for her to Simply
fall over it Michelle's parents sent her medical records to three board certified
forensic pathologists their unanimous verdict Michelle was murdered and they said it wasn't the
fall that killed her the forensic experts said if Michelle had fallen three stories she should have had
injuries on both sides of her brain the head injuries were quite extensive but these were all Left sided these injuries
are what we call coup direct impact injuries as from a blow Dr W says other injuries also indicate
that she was assaulted plus he says parts of her body that were not harmed are just as
important for example her pelvis wasn't broken and her internal organs were all undamaged that is extremely inconsistent
very atypical of the kinds of injuries that we would find in a fall finally the County coroner's office opened the first
official inquiry into the case the verdict was quick and clear we will amend the
original from undetermined to homicide the homicide ruling provided no scenario and no suspect but Michelle's
parents have a theory they believe that she was murdered after telling Jeremy the
marriage was over don't you raise your voice to me don't talk to me like that if you keep that I'm up I'm leaving you
I think that night she made the mistake of telling Jeremy she was going to leave
him we think she ran from the apartment fleeing for her life she was then assaulted outside of
the apartment Michelle's parents believe that the balcony story was a quickly improvised
coverup while no one on Jeremy's side side was willing to be interviewed they emphasized that Jeremy did pass a
polygraph test twice we told Jeremy from the day Michelle died that we want to find out and we plan to find out
everything there is to find out and we will pursue Justice in this case no matter where it takes
us Update 7 years to the day after Michelle's body was found on outside her apartment police charged Jeremy witheral
with third degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after two weeks of testimony and two hours of deliberation
he was acquitted jurors said conflicting testimony about the cause of the injuries influenced their verdict the
police have closed the case and ruled it a suicide accidental death [Music] coming up the legendary wienberg
Massacre was the attack carried out by Apaches or a ruthless Comm man on a quiet Highway 60 M from Phoenix
A Small Monument stands at the edge of the road PES it honors the victims of a once Infamous shootout in the days of
the wild [Music] west by the end of the attack six men were dead one had been stabbed with a
lance another was scalped this atrocity would become known as the Wickenberg Massacre somehow two people managed to
survive though they were injured William Krueger and Molly Shepard lived on to provide the official account of what
happened that day the story told by Krueger and Shephard led the United States government to retaliate the result was
the deaths of hundreds of Native Americans and now more than a century later some historians believe that
Krueger and Shephard might have planned the attack themselves hoping to steal a small fortune from the stage
coach November 5th 1871 William Krueger and Molly Shepard climb aboard a stage coach in Wickenberg
Shephard was a well-known prostitute and Madam who had recently sold her brothel
Krueger was a two-time army deserter who had somehow convinced the military to hire him as a civilian
[Music] clerk also so this is how it happened we got after the attack while Shephard was
recuperating Krueger was questioned by Captain Charles minold who was assigned to investigate the incident sir I
believe it was about 11: a.m. or so that I heard the driver yell Apaches Apaches
and the next thing I know sir these Indians are firing on us and and they got Mr long you know the
the famous author and then they wounded uh Mr sammon he SM just like the fish you know and he got at the back of the
coach he went running the other way and these Indians they they swooped down on him sir I and I fired back so they they
scal him you know in in the coach and and uh and and Mr ham and I you know we were fighting and he was hit so bad that
he couldn't go anywhere and I knew our only chance our only chance was to just make a run for It Go Molly go and doing
that Split Second Molly and I we got out the other side and we just took off run
in the opposite direction sir until we finally got away thank you Mr Krueger for your cooperation thank you sir God
bless Lieutenant tell the men we'll ride at sunup if I want to get a look at this
site Myself by the time mold reached the site the victim's bodies had been returned to
wienberg for burial he uncovered several Clues suggesting that Native Americans had been
involved the M hole was a a military person and looked at it uh I guess like military would and he really car
carefully he studied the footprints the the moccasin prints which they were wearing moccasins and that most of the
moccasin most of them were towed in which is typical of the way Native Americans
walk the tracks LED towards a reservation 25 M away it was home to 750 members of the Yavapai tribe but
strangely several miles before the tracks reached the reservation they veered off in a different direction
action this to me would indicate possibly a non-native American group that is heading towards Camp dat Creek
to make it look like the perpetrators are heading back to the reservation the Yavapai who were often
misidentified as Pates were a largely peaceful people many worked as laborers and Scouts for the settlers to those who
knew the tribe it seemed inconceivable that they would have been involved in the attack there were only six occasions
uh throughout the entire western frontier when American Indians actually Native Americans attacked Stage Coach if
this was a Native American attack we would have found that the ammunition and the weapons certainly would have been
missing and we would also found that any the blankets would have been taken but in this particular case none of it was
touched whatsoever but the most puzzling evidence was found in the bags of mail that have been loaded on to the stage
coach at Wickenberg after the attack a number of letters addressed to the Army quartermaster had
been open and their contents carefully put back going through the mail this is something that an Indian Indian or
Native American would not do is go through the mail um this certainly you know to me would indicate that it was a
non non-indian attack but if the aapi were innocent who were the killers and what was their
motive at the time gold bullion was often transported by stage coach at least one
account claims that Mexican Bandits disguised as the Pates were responsible others suggest a more
devious plan Krueger and Shephard masterminded the entire thing it had to be them if it was
Bandits Mexican Bandits or typical Highwaymen oh why did they let Krueger and Shepherd get
away so these Indians they're slithering up on us like like primers coming back Krueger's account of his Escape seemed
hard to believe researcher Jeff Hammond believes that Krueger and Shephard hired Bandits
to help them with the robbery Krueger probably fired first to begin with inside the coach the attacker shooting
on the outside would have been easy to wipe out anybody inside the stage coach they wouldn't have expected expected
somebody inside the coach to start shooting them in his report Captain minold acknowledged rumors that the scheme was
intended to rob the mail of the bullion usually shipped around the first of every month and yet mold never said that
the gold had actually been carried on that specific Stage Coach run still the stories persisted there had to be
something worthwhile uh whatever it was it was something that was privately owned that
was the reason it wasn't officially reported the person that owned the money that was taken was dead there was nobody
left to be upset about it Jeff Hammond believes that Krueger hid the loot somewhere near the massacre
site where only he and shepher could find it Krueger had expected to walk out there a few days later and dig it up uh
he couldn't he had no idea that this would cause national attention to it okay he knew there was nothing he could
do if anybody found him out there outside of wienberg digging in the ground he would have ended up on the
other side of a rope if there was a treasure it seems unlikely that Molly Shepard or William
Krueger ever recovered it Shepard disappeared soon after the incident fueling rumors that she had died of her
wounds Krueger last surfaced 13 years after the massacre when he sued the government for money that he claimed to
have lost in the attack during the 1870s the Wickenberg Massacre caused a national
outrage within 18 months of the attack the yapi were driven off the reservation by a government determined to punish
them for their attack eventually hundreds of innocent men women and children died from starvation and
disease we may never know who was responsible for the wienberg massacre however we do know that the list of
victims include many more than the six men who were killed on that violent morning more than a century
ago next a young mother loses her memory after undergoing a risky surgery then one day she leaves home and never
returns Houston Texas one warm spring afternoon Mary urick was on her way to visit her sister
Pat as she did almost every day suddenly she was overcome by a feeling of dread I could feel it in my
bones I knew something was wrong but I couldn't pinpoint it her little boy Eugene he was in the
doorway the door wide open and your mommy I knew then that something was wrong because bat didn't allow the
children out by their themselves at all and then I found Sheila in the kitchen and she was just having a fill
day with the water and the dishes the water was all over the counters it went all in the floor and I said Sheila
where's Mama where's Mama oh Mama's asleep patri Patricia I went into the bedroom and I saw Pat laying halfway on
the bed and half off and I tried to waken her and I could not waken her at the hospital the doctors
discovered that an aneurysm was blocking the blood flow to Pat's brain the doctors had to act quickly they
performed a risky operation that saved Pat's life but there was an expected complication she didn't know who I was
she didn't know her husband baby how are you feeling you feel better now she didn't
know anything everything was gone did she woke up into a different world than what she went to sleep in Jean Sheila do
your mommy look pretty today hat did not recognize her children at all she looked at me
and she says who are they honey you remember these pretty babies don't you Pat had to be taught to do
everything again even how to eat it was all too much for her husband who filed for divorce and was granted custody of
their children a short time later a woman who had been hired to look after Pat called
Mary at work Pat had disappeared 6 weeks later Pat was picked up for loitering nearly 700 miles away
in Alabama where she and Mary had lived when they were young Pat's memory never fully returned
but eventually her life became more normal she even began dating Troy Carlton a construction worker I want to
introduce you to my sister-in-law and I walked in and there Pat it's Patricia Snider Patricia this is my good friend
Troy howdy nice to meet you hello I made some kind of remark about it being recessed in heaven with angels
running around there and next thing you know we were dating when I first met Pat I was
unaware totally of any medical problems when I was made aware of the fact that she she had these
problems uh it didn't it didn't decrease my feelings for her not in any way if anything they increased through
concern Pat and Shay were soon married Troy encouraged Pat to fight for custody of her children and a court hearing was
soon scheduled 7 days before the court date Troy came home for lunch at noon as he
did every day he [Music] Patricia laying on the dining room table was her purse a wallet keys Pat was gone
finally I called Mary her sister Mary responded oh Lord I said what you mean oh Lord she said I bet Pat walked
off I said what in the hell are you talking about Pat walked off 3 weeks later Pat was seen on the
other side of town Troy immediately drove to pick her up hi a stranger hi there sweetie are you mad at
me no sweetie you want to go home yes I don't have any idea where she ever went I don't have any idea why she went
I don't know what she did while she was gone she never discussed it period Troy assumed Pat's disappearance
was an isolated incident but he was wrong Pat wandered off seven more times within the next year and then one time
she could not be found Pat was missing for 13 months Patricia and then she surfaced in San
Diego California evidently her memory had returned enough to give a welfare worker her maiden name and her
birthplace the welfare worker found one of Pat's ants in Birmingham but the aunt believed
Pat was still in Houston and did nothing to follow it up that was the last time that anybody ever saw or heard from Pat
Carlton eventually Troy Carlton remarried but with his current wife's support he is doing everything that he
can to Aid in the search I couldn't live with Pat again I'm married I've raised two
stepchildren one of my own I I wouldn't trade what I've got for anything in the world but I would like
to find out that Pat is alive healthy and I'd like to see her have the happiness that she
deserves update Patricia Carlton was found in San Francisco 33 years after she disappeared her family reports that she
is safe and living with them she has not wandered off since returning home coming up these are images of a
notorious Bank rapper perhaps you can help the police identify him on a previous broadcast we featured the
story of Jackie Dragon who was adopted by a California couple when she was just a baby when Jackie was 12 she found her
adoption papers and learned the names of her birth parents it was a big thing it was a it
was a turning point it was something that I knew from that point on that someday I would find those people
after 9 years of searching Jackie finally tracked down her biological mother Marge
Ryder hi may I speak with Marge Ryder please speaking Marge was living in Winchester
Illinois the phone call from Jackie was a total surprise does the date February 16th 1964 mean anything to you what did
you say your name was again well my name is Jackie I was already sitting down and I
felt like I had just fallen into a chair because it was I've never had a shock like that
before well do you have time to talk right now look at the likeness there Jackie learned she had three sisters
only the youngest Tracy had been raised by March her two other sisters Laura May
and da Marie had also been put up for adoption it it was very exciting I couldn't believe it like there's more
you're kidding there's something more that I didn't know he's pretty tall I would love the opportunity to find my
sisters Laura May and Don Marie I don't know if those are their names still I like to think that somewhere wherever
they are that they know that they're adopted and that they wonder where they came
from they were mine I did love them I do love them and it wouldn't be nice to make the
family complete again update thanks to our viewers Marge and Jackie's dream of reuniting their family finally
came true they were contacted by Mar's two other daughters Laura May whose adoptive name is Susan and Don Marie now
Carlin 3 months after our broadcast Susan arrived at Jackie's home in Glendale California Marge and her
youngest daughter Tracy flew in from Illinois for this very special reunion how are you so much on the
phone meeting them was really nerve-wracking because it's like I wasn't quite sure what to expect and
what they would expect of me did your and then after I got here it's just all seemed to flow it very
natural the last time I remember seeing Laura she was in a high chair and now here she is all growing up and I'm still
looking for this little girl you know and that's it's kind of hard a short time later Carlin arrived
it's good to meet you um I grew up knowing that I was adopted but I didn't know anything about who my real parents
were and it's nice to know you know who your family is you what your background is you know and learn more about him I
think when I first started feeling really comfortable is when we went out and took some Polaroids and it was a
really neat feeling to have a picture right in front of me and see all of us standing
together it's a very once in A- lifetime kind of a thing to find a sister that you've never met everybody
smile each one is totally individual they're all strong I've found out and they've done good with their
lives I'm proud of all four of them and and so now the Family Circle is finally complete they all still keep in
touch and know that they will never be separated again Spokan Washington one fall day A well-dressed
man enters a local bank may I help you stand up and move away from the desk quickly
come on move over back away from the counter quickly don't touch any alarms do exactly as you're told no fast moves
keep your hands where I can the robber is calm in control and prepared for anything take them out
slowly I have a police scanner here he shows the terrified employees a police scanner claiming that he will know if
they try to alert the Police the robber orders everyone into the Vault and then follows them
in PR up it's his first robbery and he'll walk away with more than $100,000 hurry up it's all over in less
than 5 minutes the robber leaves no fingerprints and even manages to avoid being
photographed the reason for that is the way he very quickly got control of the situation prevented um any photographs
from being obtained almost a year later the Bandit stole $14,000 from another Spokan bank but
this time he got an unexpected surprise a a die pack was given to the robber which went off very shortly after
he left the bank within seconds of him leaving the bank obviously that caused a commotion
on the street and a witness did observe that commotion after another bank robbery 3 months
later Bank employees were able to create composits of the Bandit however these sketches were no substitute for
photographs amazingly the robber had managed to avoid all of the cameras in all of the
banks but early the next summer his luck changed this time frightened but quick thinking bank tellers took a chance
we said hi and he said hi and he walked up to the counter and pulled out his gun
and put on sunglasses at the same time and then told us that he wanted to go into the Vault and get the money and he
told us to empty out the Telly drawers he went to one drawer at a time and when we were emptying them out that we you
know pulled all the money out and there's a bill trap underneath some of the bills we pulled the money out from
underneath the bill trap which triggered the alarm Not only was the silent alarm activated
but the bank's surveillance camera was also triggered for the first time the robber was caught on
film getting a photo in this robbery was a a big step forward for us in our investigation up till this point all we
had were were witness uh descriptions of the bank robber it did result in US linking him to three additional bank
robberies as a suspect uh in Tucson Arizona so that was again a major step forward in in determining that the scope
of what he's been doing as well as an aid to identification these are still frames
from the videotape the robber appears to be 6 ft to 6'2 in tall and weighs between 200
and 220 lb over the years he has made off with more than [Music] $400,000 if any one has any information
about this case please log on to our website at unsolved.com [Music] next a rock from Mars may hold proof
that we are not alone in the universe deep space each New Image brings up the ageold
question is there life somewhere else in the universe some imagine the answer would
come from a spaceship carrying aliens from a farway civilization but in fact the truth might
be hidden in this ordinary looking piece of meteorite known as rock number 84001 today Rock 84 of
o1 speaks to us across all those billions of years and millions of miles it speaks of the possibility of
life this meteorite came from the planet Mars and traveled millions of miles over
millions of years until it finally slammed into Earth it may forever change the way we
view the universe this meteoroid if it should prove true would be literally one of the
turning points one of the defining epochs and all of human exploration and Discovery I think it would be almost an
icon for the 20th century some scientists theorize that the seeds for life on Earth were planted
by microorganisms from Mars ironically what may prove to be the most remarkable Discovery in the history
of mankind began with a completely unremarkable event Antarctica December 1984 Dr Robert score was among a team of
American scientists on a geological Expedition searching for meteorites Dr score picked up the rock
now known as number 84001 it weighs only 4.2 lb and is the size of a large potato no one paid any
attention to it and for 8 years it's had a on a shelf Gathering dust this meteorite was essentially
misclassified or not very carefully classified as an ordinary Earth meteorite and only later on when a
geologist named David midfi looked at it more carefully did he realize no this is
characteristic of a Martian meteorite it is just the precise ratio of certain isotopes that make it clear that it came
from Mars as it turned out 84001 was only the 12th Martian meteorite ever found it is 4.5 billion
years old almost as old as our solar system and existed at least 1 billion years before life began on
earth a team of NASA scientists finally analyzed the rock deep within were what appeared to
be Signs of Life the fossilized remains of dozens of incredibly tiny microorganisms it's not a Smoking Gun as
we've said in our paper we have not found proof of living venic activity in this Martian sample but we have a trail
of evidence for a scientist a trail of evidence is like a map to buried treasure however this map goes back in
time as well as taking us to a different place it suggests a remarkable Journey that began on Mars 4 and a half billion
years ago when our solar system was just taking shape at the same time time 84001 was being formed Mars was being
bombarded by a catastrophic meteor storm its surface was left covered with craters and
crevices early in the history of Mars we feel it was warmer and it was wetter there was abundance of water on the
surface of the planet the atmosphere was more dense liquid water moved across the
surface of the planet it also percolated down through the cracks oh over the next 500 million
years chemical reactions in this primeval soup apparently produced A Primitive life form as the water
evaporated the microscopic life forms were enclosed in rock and became fossilized one such rock may have been
84001 then it sat on the surface of the planet for a period of time up until 16 million years ago when a large meteorite
or Comet possibly slammed into the surface of Mars with enough energy that it caused it to be lifted off the
surface of Mars and escaped the gravitational field of the planet it traveled through space for 16 million
years and 13,000 years ago fell on the ice fields of the Antarctic in 1984 Robbie score picked it up and the
rest is history it is at this point that history supposedly takes an incredible turn
while the organisms in 84001 were fossilized it's quite possible that other meteorites carried
living organisms all the way to Earth these organisms could have been the source of all life on our
planet to put it simply the human race May in fact be Martian no doubt that life could have
originated on Mars and come to Earth billions of years ago in this kind of process where something hits Mars and
knocks pieces loose and likewise it's just as possible more or less that life could originate on Earth and gone to
Mars the possibilities are enough to excite even skeptical scientists but they warned that
84001 is not definitive Proof of Life on Mars what we really need to do is to send a sample return Mission dig up
Martian soil dig up a rock ideally from a meter or two beneath the soil bring it
back chemically analyze it in pristine lab find a cell it's done on December 4th
1996 the unmanned Pathfinder spacecraft took off for Mars during its 9-month visit to the red planet Pathfinder
collected more than 177,000 images and performed more than a dozen chemical studies of rocks soil and weather data
we're really intrigued with the possibility that life may still exist on Mars and if it does exist it it almost
has to exist underneath the surface now that doesn't mean Little Green Men or you know UFOs or anything like that but
it does mean that scientists really do believe that life does exist in other places and we just have to find
it I never dreamed that I would have the opportunity to work on a problem of this
magnitude this is a tremendous Awakening to mankind that hey we may not be alone in this vast
Universe which we reside perhaps there people out there on these other bodies that are also searching for
Life NASA has continued to probe for Life supporting conditions on Mars during its Phoenix mission in 2008 NASA
landed a robotic spacecraft on the surface of the planet and tested for traces of water in the soil and
atmosphere science scientists still hope to get one step closer to answering the
ageold question are we alone or is there any other life out there [Music]

Brief Summary

Michelle Witheral's suspicious death, the Wickenberg Massacre, and Patricia Carlton's memory loss are featured in this episode.

Key points

The Mysterious Fall of Michelle Witherall. Michelle Witherall, a newlywed, falls from her apartment balcony under suspicious circumstances.
The Wickenberg Massacre. A violent attack leads to the deaths of six men, raising questions about the true perpetrators.
Pat's Memory Loss and Disappearance. After a life-saving surgery, Pat loses her memory and goes missing multiple times.
Jackie Finds Her Mother. After years of searching, Jackie finally connects with her biological mother, Marge.
Family Reunion. Jackie reunites with her biological family after years of separation.
Martian Meteorite Discovery. A meteorite from Mars may hold clues to life beyond Earth.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I could feel it in my bones.

Mary Urick sensing something was wrong with her sister.

19:13WatchMar 9, 2017

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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